A female investor is dismayed upon seeing her investments tank

Why have game industry SPACs been such a disaster?

I wanted to make it spicy on my return episode of This Week in Games, so I asked the indomitable Eric Kress a simple question: why have gaming SPACs performed so poorly? In 2021 & 2022, I caught SPAC fever, putting small bets into Playstudios, Nexsters, Skillz and IronSource. My performance has ranged from -65% to a complete delisting. Here’s what Eric had to say…

A headshot of the very svelte looking game engineer James Marr on a beautiful fall day

Empathy is the Secret Superpower of Great Game Engineers

Empathy is the secret superpower of great game engineers. This was one of the most insightful takeaways from my interview with veteran Technical Director James Marr about the difference between merely Good and truly Great when it comes to game engineering. In his illustrious career in game development, James has held leadership positions at companies including Zynga, DeNA and N3TWORK Studios. He has been a technical lead on games including Eliminate – the first 3D, […]

Headshot for SVP and GM of Diablo, Rod Fergusson

Diablo Boss Rod Fergusson On What Makes a World Class Videogame Producer

There are few leaders in the industry whose CV even comes close to Rod Fergusson, who currently serves as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Diablo franchise. With credits including Gears of War, Unreal Tournament, Shadow Complex, Infinity Blade, Bulletstorm, BioShock Infinite, Microsoft Train Simulator and now Diablo, few producers have had a lead role in as many big name franchises as Rod…

a goofy, talking gun from Justin Roiland's High on Life

IGN Publisher John Davison On How Games Get Covered in 2022

This one is an absolute treasure trove of information for game developers. IGN is one of the biggest games media organizations in the world, and in this interview, VP & Publisher John Davison gives us a peek behind the curtain at how videogames get covered. A veteran of games media, game development and entrepreneurship, there is no one better positioned than John to explain how games are covered in the current multimedia era…